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May 14, 2014 at 2:00 AM

Faster than you can say 1-2-3, the 1-2-3 is gone and in its place a new restaurant at 123 Long Beach Avenue is appearing. The new place is called Stones Throw and it is literally a stone's throw from the beach. Just after Christmas last year, Elaine and Bob Stone sold the building they had owned for four years to Joe Lipton, Michelle Friar and their business partner Chris Crane

Faster than you can say 1-2-3, the 1-2-3 is gone and in its place a new restaurant at 123 Long Beach Avenue is appearing. The new place is called Stones Throw and it is literally a stone's throw from the beach. Just after Christmas last year, Elaine and Bob Stone sold the building they had owned for four years to Joe Lipton, Michelle Friar and their business partner Chris Crane

To anyone who knows York, Lipton and Friar should be familiar names. They operate two other successful restaurants in York: Inn on the Blues and Guac-n-Roll, neighboring businesses on Ocean Avenue in York Beach. Lipton and Friar have lived in York for thirty years. They both attended York schools, later married and raised their children here. The Lipton and Friar partnership has become an institution.

In 1997, Joe Lipton was living in Cape Neddick and working for Chris Crane. Eventually the two men decided to go into business together. They bought Inn on the Blues in 2003 and completely renovated it. Seven years later, seeing another opportunity, they leased the place that had been Gabby Sullivan's and made it into York's only Mexican restaurant (Guac-n-Roll). Lipton told me that as a kid he had worked in each of the two Ocean Avenue businesses he now operates — though they were then called Bogart's and Cafe Shelton. Adding Stone's Throw to the mix fulfills a dream he and his wife have had for years.

Restaurants are notoriously difficult businesses at which to succeed — perhaps especially restaurants that are restricted to seasonal operations. Staying open from Mid-May to the end of October makes it hard to make a living but these folks have made a go of it. If restaurants are hard to run, can running an inn or a music venue be any easier? Doubtful, yet that is just what Friar and Lipton are doing. Inn on the Blues is a bar and restaurant but also a music space and a 5-room inn. Guac-n-Roll is a restaurant and bar.

Stones Throw will give them eight more hotel rooms. Things are scaling up for these energetic entrepreneurs. The new place will be quite different from either of their other businesses. For one thing, Stones Throw will be serving breakfast every morning as well as lunch and dinner. They'll be open until 11 p.m. The other businesses open later and don't serve breakfast.

Michelle Friar has put her own personal touch on the menu as well as on the decor. The new place has an open and airy feeling. Glass doors can be lifted to create a space that flows from outside to inside. There are lots of natural touches from a concrete bar top to beer and liquor taps that are made of beach stones provided by a local art gallery.

I asked Friar and Lipton how they contrasted the clientele at the two beaches. "Short Sands," Lipton told me, "is all hustle-bustle whereas Long Sands is more mellow." Their businesses pick up on that. "We want to appeal to local people as well as to tourists," Michelle Friar added.

Their focus is not just on expanding their businesses. They also want to make sure their businesses provide something to the community. "We are going to have a local loyalty program" they said, "where people can earn points for frequent dining at any of the restaurants." Another way they give to the community is by employing a lot of people — some of them for years on end. This year, the company will have nearly a hundred people on staff. They're going to need them, too. They've got three businesses to run with a combined capacity of more than 300 seats.

The day I visited them at Stones Throw they were shuttling between businesses; picking out tableware for one, going over decor for another, reviewing staffing for a third. There is a lot to do when you are trying to run a seasonal business — let alone three of them — but anyone who knows Joe Lipton and Michelle Friar knows that they have boundless energy. They've also got serious commitments to one another, to their family, to their employees and to the community. They make it look as easy as 1-2-3. Stones Throw will be opening early next month. Check their website for details: www.stonesthrowyorkbeach.com.

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